"Alright then, I should get going. I have another appointnt later." After the board mbers left, Adrian stood up only after the two executives sat silently for a while.
"Oh? With that... Brooklyn Decker?" Claude asked after so thought.
"No, it’s soone else, Christina Hendricks. She has an amazing figure like Brooklyn Decker, no, even more voluptuous, a total bombshell," Adrian replied with a grin.
"Two won in one day?" Claude raised an eyebrow in surprise, "You really have the energy, although this is quite normal for you, I still... can’t help but shake my head."
"It’s different. I got Brooklyn two days ago; today she was just an excuse to co to the eting room late." Adrian winked mischievously, "I did it for you, Crow."
Claude hesitated not a bit and gave a middle finger, then asked after recalling sothing: "Wait, I rember Christina Hendricks is not..."
"That’s right, one of the main roles in ’Mad n,’" Adrian waved his hand, "Although Fox bought the rights at a high price, I recomnded her for the role. Furthermore, as a super director, even without all that, would it be hard for to take her to bed?"
"No wonder you can only have daughters," Claude muttered.
Adrian, hearing clearly, squinted his eyes: "Do you feel like you haven’t been hurt enough by my fists?"
"Hey, I didn’t say anything." Claude said with a shaless grin.
"Alright then," Adrian smacked his lips, "I’ve heard Helen is pregnant; I believe it will be a girl."
"No problem, as long as it’s always that way," Claude laughed while waving his hand and then quickly changed the topic, "Speaking of which, although we’ve successfully pushed Fleming out, you’ve given a problem, Ed. I bet before you nominate another executive director, Kane will definitely keep a close eye on ."
"How could that be," Adrian chuckled, "If after this incident he still hasn’t gained insight, then he’s not fit to stay on the board. Frankly speaking, Kane is quite capable, but his ambition is a bit too big. Fleming saw this and used him, with this lesson, we won’t have to worry about his little sches for quite a long ti."
"Alright, anyway, we’ve basically reached our goal, although..." Claude sighed deeply.
Though everything seed to be under control, and they did plan quite a lot, many unexpected situations arose. The most typical example was the janitor’s video. After investigation, that guy indeed had dumb luck capturing it, so it was indeed an accident, which directly disrupted Adrian and Claude’s plan to lure the snake out.
Long before this, they already realized there were internal problems within the company, such as the acquisition case that was targeted, and the snatched ’Mad n,’ etc. These were things they were determined to get, yet News Corporation snatched them away, making the most of the gaps when they quarreled and had cracks, missing tily reactions.
The timing was so right that it’s absolutely impossible to say that soone internally wasn’t tipping them off, so the primary task was to catch this person. Only, before they started, they were thwarted by the janitor’s video, giving their opponent a great opportunity to discredit them. Luckily, at least one step Adrian and Claude took was right, continuing to act indifferent to each other, as if they hadn’t reconciled, to gather evidence secretly, waiting for certain people to jump out.
Despite the high cost, it also allowed them to deal with so restless guys, not entirely a loss.
Luckily, the final result was mostly within control, though Adrian and Claude were quite surprised when they confird Fleming’s connection with News Corporation, Murdoch was indeed generous. But as long as they dug him out, it was enough, even though for various reasons AC dia couldn’t co clean, releasing the news privately was still fine, and Fleming hence couldn’t work in any other company, no one would hire such a person.
At the sa ti, it also knocked so sense into the AC dia board of directors, and could be considered a gain, then... the two in the eting room exchanged glances, everything was understood without words.
With the small-scale adjustnt of the AC dia board of directors, although rumors of a huge rift between the two founders continued to circulate and the shadow of the failed financing was still lingering, everything started moving in a direction favorable to them. This disappointed many who wanted to watch a good show—after all, it had been so sensational, and in the end, it was dismissed so lightly, such a pity—except for Rupert Murdoch.
As the one who personally directed the drama, Murdoch felt no big regret; he knew doing and achieving were two different things, nothing ever ca with a hundred percent success rate. Besides, he reached most of his goals; at least AC dia couldn’t expand for years.
If possible, Murdoch wouldn’t want to deal with AC dia this way; it’s very unwise, but circumstances force him. If you were to choose the biggest enemy for News Corporation, it’s not Viacom, not Ti Warner, nor Disney, News Corporation’s biggest enemy is AC dia.
In less than 20 years, those two young n achieved what he took 30 years or even longer to do, not counting the ti he spent gaining experience in his youth. They always managed to accurately grasp the rhythm of the tis, almost without making mistakes, and seized the opportunity of the internet, most of the popular social networking sites originated from Adrian’s ideas, despite the consensus that he failed miserably in the nearly impossible-to-enter mainland market, after abandoning the TV station route, they continued to expand and eat into it from the internet and film channels.
Many in the industry were envious; Murdoch was among them, but it wasn’t why he took action. As the old fox who single-handedly made News Corporation what it is today, having gone through all kinds of storms, he doesn’t make decisions based on emotions for such major matters. The reason for action is AC dia’s rapid expansion, despite its slowed pace in recent years, there’s still plenty of room for growth, and if he doesn’t want to continually be eaten up and squeezed, curbing them is the inevitable choice.
However, Adrian and Claude cooperated exceptionally well, leaving almost no openings, despite Murdoch’s early arrangents, he still found few chances. This ti, had it not been for the dispute arising from their disagreent over the listing, Murdoch would likely still have to wait. It’s because of this that he most wants to push Claude out of AC dia.
Everyone knows Adrian has vision and imagination, but only Claude can turn it all into reality. If he could push him out of AC dia, it would be like losing an arm, even if Adrian later realizes and puts his pride aside to invite him back, it’s virtually impossible to reunite as before.
Regrettably, unexpectedly they reconciled so quickly, deceiving everyone and exposing Fleming—such a pity, Murdoch gave plenty of benefits to draw him in, who would do this without enough perks? Plus, AC dia didn’t go public and had a complete industry chain, being semi-closed, so the blow wasn’t particularly severe.
Actually, if possible, Murdoch really would have waited until AC dia went public before striking.
But now this is sufficient, even though AC dia is still young compared to other dia groups, there are still foundational issues, it’s already a behemoth. Such a giant can only be suppressed, not swallowed or dismbered, and now, although it looks like AC dia rely failed to finance and promptly dug out the mole and adjusted board mbers, apparently unscathed, it will take considerable effort to handle the ensuing series of impacts.
Moreover, this ti has also allowed many people to see the repercussions of AC dia’s rapid expansion, and surely there are those who want to strike from within—it’s worth noting that many dia group leaders before Murdoch had such ideas. The pressure brought by AC dia’s rapid expansion isn’t only borne by News Corporation, but unfortunately, only Murdoch took action. Just for this reason, News Corporation has the inevitability to rank among the top three dia groups.
Of course, when News Corporation made its move, many others joined in, cooperatively yet tacitly without greeting one another. Those overwhelming reports about the discord between the two couldn’t have been handled by News Corporation alone. Similarly, soone made a move from Wall Street’s side; otherwise, AC dia’s financing activities wouldn’t be so difficult, facing a heap of harsh conditions.
If Adrian and Claude are smart enough, what they should do now is to retract and further consolidate their foundation, and even if they want to expand before this, they must proceed slowly.
They should thank . Murdoch felt sowhat smug as he walked into the party. At least I inford them of the importance of a solid foundation.
To create such turbulence within AC dia, winning ti and opportunity for News Corporation, he truly had the right to be pleased.
"Hey, Rupert," a voice greeted over, Redstone’s face, which seed a bit stiff due to skin grafts, appeared before Murdoch, "How co you’re here alone? Your beautiful wife didn’t co?"
"Wendi doesn’t like such occasions," Murdoch smiled as he pushed up his glasses, "Just chatted a bit with Senator Field; I promised to support his environntal protection bill."
"You supporting an environntal protection bill? Quite unexpected." Redstone raised his eyebrows.
"I always do the right thing." Murdoch spread his hands.
The two old rivals started chatting, one word followed by another, then several others joined in, including so from the dia industry and others from different sectors, all decent people.
"Speaking of which, it seems only one of those two from AC dia showed up today," soone suddenly brought up during the conversation, "Didn’t they previously state there was nothing between them?"
"Maybe one had sothing and couldn’t co, or maybe one just found this fundraising party boring and didn’t want to co—in fact, I think it’s a bit boring." Soone teased, "Don’t gloat, Bob."
"Indeed, they’re not fools; surely they wouldn’t keep on quarreling?" Redstone chid in, glancing at Murdoch, aware of the News Corporation’s underhand tactics among several large dia groups as no secret.
"Young people grow from setbacks." Murdoch smiled and replied.
Then, a voice interjected: "Indeed, I have learned a lot, for instance, even the most detailed plans can be unexpectedly interrupted, or being bought off is unavoidable."
Subsequently, Adrian appeared before them, neatly dressed with a wine glass in hand. Murdoch’s expression subtly changed, Redstone raised an eyebrow, while others looked sowhat uneasy, as they had been discussing him just monts earlier.
"Hello, Ed, have you managed to free yourself from your busy schedule?" The one who previously spoke on his behalf greeted first.
"Yes, spent most of the month to barely settle everything, really not easy," Adrian said with a tone of contemplation, "And precisely because of this, I can finally have the ti to do what should have been done."
"Oh? What is that?" Soone asked curiously.
"You know, compared to everyone here, I’m still young," Adrian smiled, glancing at Murdoch, "So it’s impossible to always consider consequences when doing things."
Then, without waiting for others to respond, he turned to Murdoch and forcefully patted his shoulder with a smile: "You want a war, I’ll give you a war, Rupert!"
After speaking, he left without looking back, placing his wine glass on the tray of a passing waiter as he went, his departing figure disappearing from view. Murdoch turned his head back, striving to control his surprised emotions, barely squeezing out a smile: "Today’s young people really lack manners."
Then, ignoring the thoughtful expressions of everyone, including Redstone, he left.
Rather than a threat, those words were more like a declaration of war, indeed, Adrian officially declared war on behalf of AC dia against News Corporation. Murdoch couldn’t help but be shocked; it was important to note it had only been about three weeks since the last board eting, and Adrian and Claude mainly just straightened out internal and external affairs; even if they wanted to retaliate, now wasn’t the ti.
But judging from Adrian’s tone, this was definitely no joke, so it’s either they couldn’t let go of their reputation and recklessly intend to retaliate to re-establish their authority, or they’ve grasped unknown leverage of Murdoch’s and are prepared to deliver a fatal blow.
Judging by Adrian and Claude’s style, it clearly wouldn’t be the forr; careful analysis reveals although they seem lucky, they always plan before acting, so...
Murdoch mused all the way back to his mansion, unable to determine from where they might launch an attack despite making several calls to assistants and his subordinates, vaguely inquiring, he still couldn’t figure it out.
Were they really just bluffing? Murdoch pondered this after turning on his bed several tis before drifting off to sleep.
But soon he was awakened by the phone ringing at midnight: "Boss, it’s bad, the ’Guardian’ today printed an extra edition, claiming they have definite evidence of phone hacking by ’World News’!" (To be continued. If you like this work, please visit Qidian (qidian) to vote for recomndations or monthly votes; your support is my greatest motivation.)
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